Flatironing 101

Author: Angie Williams

One of the hot recurring trends is ultra sleek straight hair. Whether you ironed your hair with a clothes iron, or you blow dry with a flat paddle brush or you use a flat iron to get the smooth finish, everyone knows what I mean when I say it takes work to look this good.

The most important part to this and every style are the products you use to prepare the hair, meaning get it ready for the finished style. When using a heated tool (flat iron, rollers, curling iron blow dryer) you want to prep you hair with a heat protectant so that you will cause the least amount of damage to the hair. Heat protectants should contain little to no alcohol, because the alcohol is very drying to the hair. A few products that work well are:

~Schwarzkopf's Osis Flatliner: A flatiron spray serum.
~Schwarzkopf's Slick: A flattening serum.
~Matrix Sleek Look: A sealing serum.

Once you have prepared the hair, now it's time to begin blow drying your hair. If your hair is naturally curly or wavy it's best to use a flat paddle brush to help smooth out the undesired texture. With the drying stage completed, it's time to work a dime size amount or less of heat protectant, depending on the amount of hair you have. Using too much product with an oil base may cause your hair to look "greasy". If you find that this is the case you may want to use less next time.

Now you are ready to start flat ironing your hair.

Many people find it easier to flat iron hair when it has been sectioned off. To do this you can put your hair into a high ponytail and take 1/2 inch sections and flat iron them one 1/2 inch at a time. Please be sure to only go over the section once or twice at the most. If you are going over the section repeatedly with the flat iron, you may be damaging the hair. As you are flat ironing the hair, you want to use a moderate tension and move slowly down with the hair shaft. Using the tension with slow motion you are allowing the hair to flatten more easily.

When every section is done you may want to spray it once more with the spray serum for a sleek finished look.